Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: Background: What is an operating system -- History and evolution -- An Introduction to UNIX and windows -- Basics: Introduction -- Overview of operating system -- The 'Process' concept -- Hardware features -- Introduction to object orientation -- User interface -- Outline -- System calls -- Command languages -- Job control languages -- Graphical user interface -- Windows registry database -- Process management -- Scheduling -- Process in UNIX -- Process in windows -- Memory management 1: Introduction -- Memory allocation methods -- Memory management 2: Virtual memory -- Virtual segmented systems -- Virtual machines -- Memory management 3: Virtual memory -- Protection and sharing -- Windows memory management -- UNIX memory management -- Summary -- Input-output -- Organisation of I/O software and hardware -- UNIX I/O system -- Windows NT and XP I/O system -- File management 1: File management techniques -- Improving the performance of disk systems -- Concurrent process 1: Basic principles -- Competing processes -- UNIX features -- Concurrent processes -- Concurrent processes 2: Deadlocks -- Interprocess communication -- Networks and distributed system: Introduction -- Networks -- The Internet and world wide web -- Distributed systems -- Security: Introduction -- Security - the nature of the threats -- Security techniques -- Appendix A: Introduction to UNIX shell -- Appendix B: Summary of MS-DOS commands.